Professor Sir John Salmond (1862-1924): An Englishman Abroad

No serious tort scholar in the Anglo-American world is unfamiliar with the notion that Sir John Salmond was an important tort scholar. Yet it is striking to reflect on the fact that Salmond's reputation as a tort scholar stems from only one piece of, albeit substantial, academic work: his treatise on the law of torts, first published in 1907. In one sense, it is difficult to measure Salmond's influence, because while he did personally write and edit the first six editions of the text, it continued to be published for another 70 years after his death, with three editors of great distinction contributing to its longevity. But whatever the efforts of its subsequent editors, they built on a platform of academic success and tribute that attached to Salmond's original text. This chapter reflects on some questions about Salmond's work: its relationship to his Jurisprudence text, why the book became so popular, and what influence, if any, the environment in which the book was written had on the final product.